H&M's New Clothing Recycling Initiative Promises Discount to Shoppers

Have recent reports on the perils of fast fashion got you a bit freaked you out about shopping your favorite high street stores? H&M is here to assuage your guilt: Starting in February, the retailer will offer a discount to anyone who brings in their old clothes for recycling.

Have recent reports on the perils of fast fashion got you a bit freaked you out about shopping your favorite high street stores? H&M is here to assuage your guilt: Starting in February, the retailer will offer a discount to anyone who brings in their old clothes for recycling.

Once the program launches, boxes will be placed at the cash wraps of every H&M store where shoppers can donate bags of clothing--which don't have to be in good condition or carry an H&M label--in exchange for a discount of 15% on one item of the customer's choice. The donated clothes will then be recycled and eventually, potentially used to make new clothing.

Despite being named an "Engaged Detox Brand" by Greenpeace's Toxic Threads report, the brand is still under fire for problems within their infrastructure, which include reports of unfair wages. But H&M contends that environmental issues have always been important to them, claiming that they were the biggest user of organic cotton in 2011 and committing to using only organic cotton and being zero discharge by 2020, according WWD.

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"Our sustainability efforts are rooted in a dedication to social and environmental responsibility," said H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson in a statement. "We want to do good for the environment, which is why we are now offering our customers a convenient solution: to be able to leave their worn out or defective garments with H&M."

Of course it's kind of a catch 22--recycle your old clothes and there's initiative to buy more clothes...

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Many of us rely (at least partially) on our fashionable friends' opinions of potential purchases when we're shopping. But what if you find yourself on a solo spree? Sure, there are tons of fashion apps that let you share sartorial snaps for your biddies to rate, but many stores don't allow photography. For all of you rule-abiding, approval-seeking customers, one store may have a solution you'll 'Like.'

Following reports that H&M is at work on a luxury brand, the fast fashion retailer announced today it would be launching a new chain of stores in 2013 "to broaden its offering," WWD is reporting.
While H&M is staying mum on the exact nature of the new brand, chief executive officer Karl-Johan Persson said we can expect something "like COS," that would "be independent and complement the other offerings from the group." [Ed. note: Like COS? The best store ever!? Please say it's so.] Could that mean a luxury line, designed by Behnaz Aram (previously of Whyred), is indeed in the works?
Maybe.

I made a quick stop-off in London this weekend—quick, meaning less than 24 hours—and was fortunate enough to walk by & Other Stories, H&M's newly launched brand, on my way to dinner. How serendipitous! It had just opened on Friday and I arrived Saturday.

More news today about that new, higher priced, "luxury" chain H&M is opening: It's got a name.
Just don't call it a "luxury" brand. A rep for the Swedish retailer has confirmed to us that their new chain of stores will have a higher price point and quality level, though "it will not be a luxury brand."
"It will be a retail chain that will follow the same ambition as H&M, to offer our customers the best price for a comparable item," the rep wrote in an email.
According to Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (via The Local), the new chain of stores will be called, wait for it...